Welcome to The Admission Game (TAG) College Planning Blog, an ongoing discussion of the factors that impact the college planning process. This space will keep you abreast of critical planning strategies, introduce you to key resources and comment on timely issues that relate to your college planning effort. I look forward to staying in touch and seeing your comments as we progress through the college planning process together. An extensive listing of past articles as well as those written by other authors can be found in The College Planning Library, a feature of the Best College Fit Resources.
A lot of schools invite me to speak to their Juniors (and parents) at this time of year and a key agenda behind the invitations seems to be the desire to address the importance of course selections for the coming year. My message is simple:
Step up to courses that present reasonable challenges to you academically,
Do as well as you can in those courses and, then,
Look for colleges that will value you for what you have achieved in the classroom and for the trajectory of your performance curve.
Quite often, the question of “which course to take” in the Senior year reflects either a student’s determination to get into a highly selective school or a desire to find reassurance that taking a less rigorous and, obviously, “more interesting” course will be okay. In each case, the answer rests in an understanding of your natural learning path. For years, you have been “tracked” academically—exposed to a sequence of courses that were intended to match your level of ability and preparation to find success in them.
As you reflect on your natural learning path, then, you will find guidance with regard to the next steps in course selections. What will your course selections reveal to admission officers with regard to your desire and ability to push yourself in the classroom? By taking rigorous courses, you demonstrate an ability to step up. Doing so will not guarantee admission but it will establish you on the competitive playing fields (for admission) at colleges where admission officers make fine, qualitative distinctions between excellent candidates.
A lot of times, students worry that, in taking the greater challenge they will hurt their ability to produce top grades. This is where you need to understand your capacity to handle a complex and heavy workload. Don’t over-schedule in order to impress admission officers. Do what makes sense for you and do it well.
One thing is certain, however. At highly selective colleges—places that are faced with large numbers of highly qualified candidates—admission officers want to see how you respond given the opportunity to choose your curriculum. And they want to see how you perform in that curriculum in the senior year. They want to see what you will do when you don’t think it matters any more!
That said, the matter of rigor poses a conundrum for many students who want to apply to state universities and other institutions that rely on a basic formula involving grade point average (or class rank) and the SAT/ACT results to determine who will be admitted. While logic suggests you keep challenging yourself academically, you might be leery of doing so at the expense of a lower GPA that may not make the cut in the admission process. (Unfortunately, not all state universities make qualitative distinctions in the rigor of academic programs.)
In deciding what to do, be true to yourself. You are a living, growing person. Just as you need sustenance (food, water, etc.) to survive physically, you also need to challenge and nourish the intellectual and spiritual parts of your being so they can develop, too. Hopefully, you can do that meaningfully while still meeting the seemingly arbitrary requirements of a formulated admission process.
Wherever you go to college, you are likely to find academic expectations that exceed any you encountered in high school. If you have continued to step up academically through each year of high school, the step into the college classroom will be one for which you are prepared. On the other hand, if the academic challenge you give yourself in your Senior Year of high school is not that different from the one you experienced as a Junior, then the step up to college will be awkward, if not painful.
The bottom line with regard to course selections—and your eventual college selections—is this: Do what makes sense for you. Take stock of where you are on your learning path, set your college sites reasonably and build a strong foundation through your coursework in high school that will propel you into a successful experience in college.
I will answer questions about course selections in my next posting. If you have a specific question you would like me to address, send it to my attention at Peter@TheAdmissionGame.com.
In my last posting, I introduced Jean and her growing concern about her competitiveness at the colleges to which she had applied. She had applied Early Action to one of them and a subsequent deferral letter had shaken her confidence. This led to an examination of the factors or potential landmines that may have influenced the admission decision and could, if not corrected, prove to be problematic with her other applications as well.
In Jean’s case, when the admission officers asked, “If we admit her, what do we get,” nothing jumped out at them. They saw a good student with solid involvement outside of the classroom who didn’t present a compelling reason to be admitted into the class. She had failed to project herself as a potential contributor to the athletic program or make a convincing statement about the relevance of her leadership.
What’s worse, because she had not visited the school’s campus, admission officers could find no evidence of her interest in their school when they asked, “What is the likelihood that she will come?” Uncertain of her level of interest and likely contributions, it is reasonable to assume that the next question of Jean—should she demonstrate need as a financial aid candidate—would be, “Is this someone in whom we are prepared to make a financial investment?”
By the way, I need to clarify a comment made in my last post. In assessing the manner in which Jean presented her application, I intimated that indicating an interest in financial aid on the application for admission could be prejudicial to the outcome of the application. Checking “Yes” to the question, “Do you intend to apply for financial aid?” should not hurt students in the admission process as that response alone is not an accurate indicator of the student’s financial need. If and when colleges discriminate on matters of family contribution and/or financial need, they do it at the back end of the process when they can compare the academic and financial credentials for all potentially admitted students.
It wasn’t long before Jean and her parents began to see the logic of the decision-making process at the selective schools to which she was applying. They could now rationalize the EA decision. More importantly, the despair that had hovered over the start of the conversation gave way to an excited sense of possibility as she began to develop a new “To Do” list. Even at this time of the year, Jean realized that it is not too late to get on the radar screens of the schools to which she had applied. Specifically, she saw the need to eliminate the perception that her interest in a given school is random while conveying a sense of the passion and talent within her that would set her apart from the rest of the competition.
Jean made immediate plans to visit the campuses of the “high priority” schools on her list and to attempt to introduce herself to the person(s) responsible for recruiting in her region. Moreover, she is making sure they have her most recent grades as well as documentation of a couple of honors that have come her way since she submitted her applications. She also took heart in the possibility that she could still contact the coaches at some of the smaller colleges on her list and make sure they got the DVDs of her athletic performance.
I admire Jean for her response to the situation. Rather than feeling that all is lost with regard to her college future, she is taking steps to affect the outcomes. Realizing that applying to college is a process and not an event, she is asserting herself. In doing so, she will eliminate the randomness that might otherwise be associated with her application.
Will this new-found self-advocacy assure Jean admission to her favorite schools? Not necessarily. It will, however, give her the chance to compete that she deserves. At the very least, the schools on her list now have reason to pause in considering her possible contributions to the communities they are building. Now, they will have a better idea of what they get should they admit Jean—and they’ll have more confidence that hers is a serious interest that could result in her enrollment if accepted. And, if they value her for what she has to offer, they will be more likely to invest in her with financial aid and/or scholarships.
Like Jean, you need to be honest with yourself about the nature of the competition as you apply for admission and take charge of the process. Don’t assume that because your credentials might match those on the academic profiles of the colleges to which you are applying that your admission is assured. Rather, reach out (appropriately) to decision-makers (admission officers) at the schools that are important to you and be sure to tell your story. Give the admission officers every reason to want to include you in the communities they are building as they admit their entering classes!
Two days ago I found myself talking with Jean and her parents about her college future. Jean had submitted six applications including one for Early Action consideration. Now, however, a deferral letter from the EA school had shaken her confidence. While she wasn’t hysterical, it was clear that Jean was questioning herself. Would she get in? Could she get in? And what about her chances of finding admission to the other, equally selective universities to which she had applied?
These were all good questions. While Jean possesses the academic credentials to be competitive for admission at any college or university in the country, the deferral letter had left her wondering what it would take to get in and had she done all she could do. I couldn’t find fault with the schools she had chosen nor the process she had followed in choosing them. On the surface, they all made sense for her—they were good fits. Digging deeper, however, I was able to uncover potential landmines or factors that might have influenced the outcome of her EA application. If not addressed, they would certainly have an impact on the outcomes of her other applications.
First, although Jean and her parents had been evaluating college options since her 9th grade year, she hadn’t visited any of the campuses in the last eighteen months. More specifically, she had never formally visited the school to which she applied EA. Despite her passion for the place, its admission officers had no way of knowing about her interest.
Second, she had not sufficiently established her “hook”—the credential that might set her apart from her peers in a tight competition. A student leader and two-sport athlete with aspirations for playing in college, Jean had not made contact with college athletic recruiters in her sports.
Finally, Jean had indicated on her application for admission that she would be a candidate for financial aid—a factor that could complicate things even at an institution that is reputedly “need blind” in the admission process.
As I talked with Jean, I wanted her to understand how the EA university might have reacted to her application. While she is a great candidate academically, admission officers at the schools she is considering can afford to look for more as she competes with thousands of others who look just like her. In making its decisions, the admission committee is rarely asking: “Is she good enough?” Rather it makes a series of value judgments: “Who among these great candidates do we value most? What does this candidate bring us as we attempt to build a new community?”
In my next posting, I will reveal the steps Jean took to make sure these questions were adequately addressed in her applications.
Editor’s note: I am happy to post a guest blog by Peter Farrell, Dean of Admission, Fordham University.
We have now worked through our first wave of admission activity with Score Choice in play. Without a doubt, this new wrinkle in the admission process had made the work of admission officers at Fordham more complicated.
The first wave of difficulty we experienced was a lag in the receipt of students’ scores. In early November, we had thousands of fewer SAT’s on file than the same point last year. With a deluge of scores at the end of the first week in November, it became clear that students had held off on sending scores until they had viewed their October SAT results. This delayed the onset of our early action review by nearly a week.
The second wave of difficulty came with many more high schools not sending testing on their transcripts. While this is totally understandable as students exercise their rights of ownership with regard to test results, something was clearly lost in translation with students. Much more follow-up was required to remind students to get their scores to us from the testing services. Again, a delay in reviewing many applications ensued.
The third wave of difficulty with Score Choice resulted from students opting not to share their testing plans on their applications. Seemingly, the advice students were given was to not share any testing information on applications: no test results, no planned test dates, no nothing! Obviously, this complicates our lives as we wrestle with how to handle individual applicant’s early action decisions. Should we defer a candidate with the hope they might be planning on taking a December SAT or ACT? In the past, students had told us their plans, which helped make these decisions clearer. Now, we’re just left to guess.
All of this is especially troubling in light of the fact that ours is one of the many colleges that clearly tell students they will only be reviewed on the basis of their strongest testing profile. The fact is that sharing a mixed record of testing with us formally, or just on the application itself, will not work against a student in our review.
Do you know you have rights as a college applicant?
Well, you do. As you apply to colleges, you have the right to certain information about them including information about how much it will cost you to attend. According to the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC), a member organization that includes more than 11,000 college access professionals, you have the right to:
“Receive factual and comprehensive information from colleges and universities about their admission, financial costs, aid opportunities, practices and packaging policies, and housing policies. If you consider applying under an early admission plan, you have the right to complete information from the college about its process and policies.”
“Be free from high-pressure sales tactics.”
“Wait until May 1 to respond to an offer of admission or financial aid.”
In order to make good decisions, you need good information and, quite often, a reasonable amount of time in which to consider your options. Toward that end, NACAC further stipulates that:
“Colleges that request commitments to offers of admission and/or financial assistance prior to May 1 must clearly offer you the opportunity to request (in writing) an extension until May 1. They must grant you the extension and your request may not jeopardize your status for admission and/or financial aid.”
Candidates admitted under early decision programs are a recognized exception to the May 1 deadline.”
It is important to note that May 1 is regarded as the “Candidate’s Reply Date”—the date by which admitted applicants must make their final college choices. That date was established years ago to allow students a reasonable amount of time to consider their college options and to give colleges a date by which they could begin the registration process (course selections and housing) for the coming year. If you are not an Early Decision candidate, then, you should be afforded time to process admission decisions and financial aid awards that you receive from various colleges and universities.
That said it is easy to fall prey to pressures to make enrollment commitments before you are ready. For example, you may have already encountered enticements such as early or “priority” application deadlines associated with scholarships or housing preferences. Some colleges may offer you scholarships that you can only claim by enrolling well ahead of May 1. And, if you applied to schools that offer “Rolling Admission,” you may be offered admission with the expectation that you will submit a non-refundable enrollment deposit—as soon as possible!
If you feel uncomfortable about the conditions that seem to be placed on your admission status, there is probably a good reason to proceed with caution. Listen to your instincts. And recognize the circumstances for what they are. The colleges in question are attempting to secure as many enrolled students as early in the process as possible.
If you don’t feel you are in possession of the information necessary to allow you to move forward comfortably with a particular college, ask for an extension. It’s not likely that your enrollment opportunity will be withdrawn if you miss a deadline (May 1 is the possible exception). And communicate your concerns with your college advisor as well. If the college remains insistent, ask yourself whether this is the sort of place with which you want to be associated for the next four years.
NACAC has produced a number of important documents that help to define ethical behavior for everyone involved in the admission process. To learn more about your rights and responsibilities as an applicant, go to the Policies and Statements page of the NACAC website. Click on Student Rights and Responsibilities in the College Admission Process to download a pdf brochure. In addition, you may find the Statement of Principles of Good Practice (for the enrollment cycle of 2009 and 2010 academic year), a document that guides the actions of colleges and universities, to be instructive as well.
A critical element of just about every application is the student’s ability to bring clarity to the interpretation of his/her academic record. In other words, when there are irregularities in a student’s program and/or performance, s/he has a “story” to tell. The context for such stories, or explanations, often rests in factors that are beyond the student’s control i.e. injury, illness, family moves, parental difficulties, etc. In the absence of explanations, though, admission officers must guess about the circumstances—and that rarely bodes well for the candidate as admission folks are more often cynical than charitable in their estimations!
A circumstance frequently raised in this regard is that relating to a student’s documented learning difference. Specifically, families often wonder if or how the presence of “Individual Educational Plans” (IEPs) in the student’s academic experience should be conveyed in the application for admission without prejudicing the candidacy. While there are few solutions that fit every situation, it is important to consider the manner in which information is shared with the institution, first, with regard to the student’s candidacy for admission and, then, as it relates to securing necessary support for the student once enrolled.
In terms of admission, I would err on the side of meaningful disclosure. Give the admission committee the full picture so it can make a balanced evaluation of your credentials. Places that value you for what you do well will try to find ways to admit and support you. Providing an awareness of a learning difference for which you are compensating may give them greater confidence in their respective abilities to help you find success. On the other hand, you can’t worry about schools that might not admit you. The odds are that they would not have been good fits for you in the long run anyway.
That said, you cannot count on the admission office to pass along the documentation of academic support needs to folks in the academic program. While such information might indeed be passed along on a “need to know” basis, it is routinely purged from applicant files (in the spirit of confidentiality) after a student makes the decision to enroll. Regardless, plan to present documentation of your learning difference and need for support to the counseling center/disability office after you have enrolled. Don’t assume they will have gotten the information from the admission office.
According to educational consultant, Allen Tinkler, in a note to colleagues on the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) listserve, “one of the biggest errors kids/ families make…is the assumption that just because the documentation was sent, whether to admissions or to disability support services, the college will provide accommodations and services. This is not true. The student must…self-identify and go through some kind of intake interview, discuss accommodations requested, sometimes negotiate, and learn the procedures at the college. This is done with CURRENT, COMPLETE and APPROPRIATE documentation.”
Allen further observes, and I agree wholeheartedly, that students need to learn to be “strong self-advocates.” At his former school, “each student with an IEP or 504 plan was given a complete set of documentation…at a final meeting with parents present (and) instructed that it was now up to them to take the responsibility of receiving accommodations at college. They were instructed that sometime between the distribution of those papers and the beginning of classes at college they needed to contact the disability coordinator, present themselves and their papers. We were literally passing the baton over to them.”
Ownership and the assumption of personal responsibility are vital to your success in all aspects of life. So seize the opportunity! During the senior year, and certainly by the time you graduate, step forward and accept responsibility. Make a difference with regard to the direction you will take during your college years and beyond!
To further explore this topic, join us in our next live Web-Side Chat webcast, “Addressing Learning Differences in Your Application,” November 23, 2009, at 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Visit BCF Resources to register.
(Editor’s note: This week I’m happy to post a guest blog by Terry Cowdrey, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at St. Lawrence University.)
As someone who has always believed that carrying an umbrella will prevent rain, I am concerned about the number of high school seniors who apply Early Decision to their first choice college and don’t formulate a Plan B. Perhaps they worry that having a contingency plan will somehow jinx their admission to the school of their dreams—that college admissions karma will question their real commitment—that somehow declaring a school as their top choice is not adequate because the Early Decision school should be their only choice. The reality is that Early Decision (ED) good news or bad news will come regardless of whether the student has a Plan B. The bad news is a lot more difficult to deal with, however, when there is no alternate plan.
Many ED candidates who hope for the “big envelope” in December are sorely disappointed. Lots of them get letters that tell them that the college is not yet able to make a decision on their application. Their ED applications have been deferred and they will be considered with the rest of the applicant pool in the spring. The letter encourages students to send updated academic information and assures them that their application will receive full consideration later in the year. Students wonder what more they can do to demonstrate their talents and commitment. Still, there is a glimmer of hope for admission to “First Choice College” making it hard for some students to look beyond and make alternate plans.
Yet other students who set their hearts on one college as ED candidates will receive a letter of rejection in mid-December. There will be no reconsideration of the application in this case—the admissions office is clear in saying that “First Choice College” will not be a college choice for the student whose Early Decision application is rejected. Although the temptation may be to give in to self-pity and to imagine no college in one’s future, the more productive reaction is to put the disappointment aside, try to remember that everything happens for a reason, and get additional applications submitted as quickly as possible. Now is the time to put your best self forward—to be sure that applications are completed thoughtfully, thoroughly, and on time.
Although it may be hard for some high school seniors to believe, some of the most successful, happiest college students are those who were not admitted to their Early Decision colleges and were forced to look more deeply at other schools, ultimately finding places that were better matched to their interests and talents.
So if you are a high school senior who has declared your love for a college through an Early Decision application, and you are waiting to hear whether you have been embraced or rebuffed, get out that proverbial umbrella. If you are not admitted Early Decision, you will need to be ready to move quickly because many Regular Decision deadlines will be only a few weeks away. Make sure you have applications ready to be submitted to other colleges that you have identified as good matches. And make sure you have had conversations with your guidance counselor and teachers so that the documents they need to send in support of your applications are ready to go if needed. Don’t worry about what you will say to your friends and relatives whom you told so proudly about your decision to apply Early—you can always tell them that you have had second thoughts and are relieved to have more time to consider other colleges—the more you say it, the more you will believe it.
And remember—you might get good news in mid-December. If you do, enjoy it—wear your college sweatshirt with a smile. But remember how attractive gratitude is. Thank your counselor, your teachers and your parents for their support through the process. Commit yourself to doing your best work for the remainder of your senior year. Getting admitted to college is an accomplishment of which you should be proud. Now, it is your responsibility to prepare yourself for the opportunities and challenges that college will bring.
Terry Cowdrey is the vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid at St. Lawrence University. Her career in college admissions spans three decades and includes experience at Vanderbilt University, the University of New Hampshire, and Wesleyan University.
It’s time to fill out applications and a big concern for many families this fall is, “Should we check ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question about financial aid on the admission application?”
While it’s understandable that students would want to avail themselves of as much financial assistance as possible, uncertainty over whether the family’s ability to pay will have an impact on the admission decision has folks on edge. There are three issues worth noting in addressing the concern.
One, the “ability to pay” is increasingly a factor in the admission process, especially for students on the competitive margin. There was a lot of discussion at the end of the admission process last spring about “full-pay” students with modest credentials getting the nod over students with somewhat stronger credentials but demonstrated financial need. With that in mind, you need to go into the admission process with your eyes wide open and make sure you are focusing on schools that value you-they’ll admit you and give you what you need.
The second matter is more practical. It has to do with how colleges use the information they glean about your financial need from the admission application. Checking “no” that you don’t need financial assistance means that a hurdle goes down—the question of your financial need has been answered. If you check “yes,”colleges still don’t have enough information to be able to discriminate in the admission process. You see, approximately one-third of the students who indicate that they will be applying for financial aid either never apply—they know they don’t need it, or they do apply and demonstrate that they don’t need it!
Colleges that discriminate based on “ability to pay” in the admission process will wait until they have seen the academic credentials and the financial aid data for most if not all of the potentially admitted students before making their final decisions.
Checking “yes” does, however, allow the admission officers to be on the alert for your financial aid application materials. That can be important if you encounter delays or problems with the processing of the latter.
Finally, you need to know that the financial aid question on the admission application is intended to reflect your intent to apply for need-based assistance from the institution itself. Period. Your eligibility for merit scholarships awarded by the college does not require you to check “yes” unless you are specifically instructed to do so on the application.
The bottom line, then, is that you should check “yes” if you know you want to be considered for need-based financial aid. That checkmark should not compromise your application for admission.
